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#conventions

Nowadays, Tangent Artists sells everything; original novels, fan art, comedic game guides like “The Handbook for Saucy Bards” and “The Cleric’s Guide to Smiting,” and soon will be including original games. However, when Tangent Artists first formed about eight or so years ago, all we did was comics. We had only one double-sized comic to sell, and had hit a few small Anime conventions with it, and it fairly well.

Then, we hit Baltimore Comic Con. I bare no ill will to BCC, but it did not go well. All we got that weekend was comments on how our artist’s style was not like “normal” style. It didn’t matter that one of the comics was essentially an undead superhero comic, it didn’t “look” like a superhero book, so hardly anyone was interested. For this reason, we generally stuck to Anime conventions for quite awhile, and they still continue to be our best selling spots. When we started writing our fantasy comic CRIT!, we started hitting the Fantasy & Sci-Fi cons as well.

Over the years, however, I’ve noticed something: the cons are blending together. The best selling prints we’ve peddled at Anime cons is our Doctor Who stuff. Cosplayers, which used to primarily frequent Anime conventions, are now showing up everywhere. (Now, there’s a chance it’s the decedent of Masquerade from fantasy cons of ’80s, but I suspect it’s actually a form of parallel evolution.) Even the subject of cosplay has broadened from Anime to all sorts: live-action shows, video games, rock stars, even internet memes.

Case in point, I got a lot of positive feedback walking around with this for two days.

I’m not saying it’s aliens, but it’s aliens.

Likewise, many new conventions realize that the cons are becoming less specific and more a celebration of everything-nerd. Awesome-Con seems to embrace this, giving no real specifics about what type of convention it is, having guests from cartoons, WWE wrestling, Mythbusters, Star Trek, and Power Rangers. Last year, I had the pleasure of attending AwesomeCon as an attendee with some good friends, and had an absolute blast. They accepted our application for Artists Alley, and we jumped at the chance.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “THIS IS A GAME BLOG, WHERE ARE THE GAMES?!”

I didn’t get a chance to join in too many games, but I did get to briefly meet two groups:

I also was lucky enough to test the fighting card game “Mahou Shojo” by DeerFox Games. Their Kickstarter just ended, and after playing one round of this game, I went straight home and bought the starter pack. This is going to be a game to watch.

FINAL THOUGHTS

That wraps most of this week up, except I had the pleasure to get our group’s infamous “Legolas and Silent G” print signed by none other than John Rhys-Davis and… Jason Mewes?!?